


The Saddest Truth

by noxsoulmate



Series: Sadness and Hope [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Facebook: The Fairest of the Rare, Gideon is dead (again), Hopeful Ending, Meddling with Time and Death, Prompt Fic, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 16:25:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19727362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noxsoulmate/pseuds/noxsoulmate
Summary: The time has come for Hermione to face reality and confront the saddest truth imaginable...





	The Saddest Truth

**Author's Note:**

> So I joined this mini challenge last night, got my prompt, was hit by my Muse with a sad idea (thanks for that), decided to just make an aesthetic to not make myself cry ... and then wrote a drabble within 20 minutes anyways 🙄 
> 
> Thanks to [vintagenoise](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vintagenoise) for beta reading this on such a short notice 😘
> 
> **prompt:** _Facing Reality_  
>  **word count limit:** _500_

**__ **

**_“The saddest truth is realizing you have fallen madly in love with what can never be.”_ **

**_~ Michael Faudet_ **

The wetness on her cheek was cold. It didn’t bother her, but she wiped it away on reflex, even though her tears had run dry hours ago. The snowflakes were thicker now, settling on the graves.

Hermione knew she should get up and leave. Should at least cast a heating charm to avoid a cold. But what difference would it make? She hadn’t felt warm in weeks.

Not since Gideon had been taken from her.

Rationally, she knew it was right. Rationally, she knew he didn’t belong in her time and she did not belong in his. Rationally, she knew he’d died when she was still a baby, and the dead should stay dead.

She knew all that.

Rationally.

But her heart …

Her eyes wandered over the hundreds of graves of wizards, fallen during the two Wars. Gideon was one of them. One of many.

He was so much more to her.

Some called it fate, some a miracle. Some blamed a spell gone wrong, some suspected dabbling with time. And some thought he was just her imagination.

Hermione didn’t care about all that. He had been real to her. His warmth had been real. His laughter and his smile. His mocking grin and shining eyes. His sharp mind and inspiring wit. 

He had been real and for one long autumn, he had been hers.

She knew how he liked his tea and he had known better than to interrupt her reading time. She still remembered every scar on his body, every freckle on his nose, every speck of gold in his eyes. 

He had been real. Alive.

And he had been hers.

Rationally, he had been long dead by then, but Hermione didn’t care.

The time turner clinked in her hand as she uncovered it. If Fate didn’t mean for them to be together, why had she dropped the opportunity to go back in time into Hermione’s hands? The opportunity to be with him? Why had she brought him into her life in the first place? For him to just be a spark of real love? A flame, burned away too quickly?

_Love rewards the brave._

Gideon had loved this saying.

Hermione hated it now. 

It would not be brave to run away. To use the time turner and just be with the love of her life, even if it was in another time. He wouldn’t even know her, which might just hurt her even more. Most importantly, she would alter the timeline, risking so many lives and events. And for what? For Gideon still dying when he originally did?

No, that wouldn’t be brave. 

Getting up, Hermione kissed the time turner, before kneeling down at Gideon’s grave and burying it.

Because the brave thing to do would be to get up and face reality, one day at a time.

Hermione decided to do just that. 

For Gideon.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanna use this opportunity to say a big thank you to [WaywardDreamer](https://www.pinterest.de/bekarawr/) over on Pinterest. I've been following her for a while and I love her character inspiration and aesthetics so much. One day, I ask her if she could maybe start one for Gideon with Richard Madden pics and fitting aesthetics. And she did and I absolutely love it! Without her, my fic aesthetics would not be the same 💖


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